Cricketers to swap bat for spoon, ball for spices with Sandeep Patil

Former cricketer and national team selector Sandeep Patil to host new cookery show with fellow cricketers as guests on each episode.

Sandeep Patil is all set to host a new cookery show with past and present cricketers as his guests.(YouTube)

Former Indian cricketer Sandeep Patil is going to be starting a new innings as the host of a television show, and he will be roping in his colleagues — both past and present — to give them a taste of his new life.

The retired middle-order batter found a new lease on life as a cook and is taking his adventures in the kitchen to the small screen with the help of former and current Indian cricketers.

Patil will host a cookery show called Taste Match — which will be broadcast on the & TV and Living Food television channels — wherein cricket professionals will cook beside him and recount stories from Team India’s dressing room.

The trailer for the show, which was posted to social media platform YouTube, shows former and current Indian internationals Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar, Harbhajan Singh, Irfan Pathan, Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya, and others alongside Patil. Some even appear clad in aprons and a chef’s hat.

Patil revealed that his passion for cooking stemmed from time spent as head coach of the Kenya national team decades ago. To avoid indulging in junk food every night, he claimed to have picked up kitchen utensils and put them to good use, a habit which has stuck for many years since.

“I started going there in 1987 and I continued going there for 17-18 years. My liking for cooking started from there itself. They have a tradition in their parties, where only men cook. I always had this love for cooking but never got a chance. To avoid junk food every day, I started cooking different dishes from there itself,” Patil was quoted as saying by InsideSport.

“I never claim that I am a good cook. My passion for cooking has become my hobby now and now it has increased to such an extent that my wife — who is a far better cook than me — I don’t allow her to come in the kitchen. Even nowadays when I am shooting a cookery show, I have to be in the kitchen.

“Today also, I have made mutton chops (laughs) because for me cooking is the most relaxing thing. I feel at my age you need some source to rejuvenate yourself and for me cooking is that medium. From cricket to coaching to cooking, it’s been a beautiful journey for me,” he said.

Patil also expressed how friendships formed over several years of being part of Indian cricket’s set up have panned out in the last few months when they filmed the episodes for the show which begins broadcast from April 8.

“During the shooting we shared some light moments. With most of them, like Kapil [Dev] and [Sunil] Gavaskar, I share a special bond. Players like Ajay Jadeja and Sourav Ganguly know me since the time they used to play under-19 cricket. We have spent a lot of time together so we have lot of interesting things to share.”

“They will be talking and sharing some interesting stories, and of course, eating the food cooked by me. We have shot many episodes so far and I have enjoyed each and every moment of that,” Patil added.